Twelve-million pieces of personal information online are in the hands of fraudsters from the first quarter of 2012 alone.

The National Consumers League (NCL) released its annual report on the top scams reported to its national Fraud Center, finding that the most frequently reported scam to NCL’s Fraud Center in 2011 involved bogus prizes and sweepstakes, with fake check scams and emotion-based pitches involving scammers posing as loved ones appearing in the top ten.